There is no question that the improved coordination and motor skill enhancement acquired through the repetitious performance of a specified athletic activity constitutes the foundation of athletic development. After all, practice makes perfect. The complete athlete constantly strives to improve those systems which support his or her physical endeavors. Taking performance to new levels of achievement.
Specificity training is closely examining the unique and specific biomechanical movements of the body while performing a given activity. And, to effectively prescribe individual stretches, resistance exercises and aerobic activities that directly involve the musculature and energy pathways unique to that activity. The complete understanding of specificity in training is a must for all exercise administrators from health club staff members and personal trainers, to professional athletic trainers.
All sports and athletic activities involving the skilled movement of skeletal and soft tissue in the achievement of a coordinated, measurable and goal specific effort can be enhanced through the application of variations of the anaerobic exercise prescriptions. Before you can prescribe effective sports-specific exercise regimens, you must first be able to clearly identify an individual sports’ fundamentally imposed energy and strength (conditioning) demands. Making this initial determination is the basis of every successful “sport-specific” enhancement exercise prescription.
For our purposes, beyond coordination of muscular activity and motor skill development, specific athletic activities can generally be placed into one of the three basic conditioning categories.
1.) Anaerobic
2.) Incremental
3.) Aerobic
Identifying the general conditioning category in which a sport falls, is the most logical way to initiate an effective sports-specific exercise prescription. Next week we will break down these three basic conditioning categories.
